Why A McDonald’s McMuffin Cost Someone Nearly $2,000
Who knew McMuffins could be so expensive. Learn why a McDonald's McMuffin cost an unsuspecting individual nearly $2,000.
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Forgetting where you left a McDonald’s McMuffin seems like a crime against nature. But never in a million years would anyone imagine that it would cost them almost $2,000! Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened to a passenger who forgot to declare their meal on a flight from Indonesia to Australia. The unnamed person was cited for bringing contraband into the country after a detector dog named Zinta tipped altered agents to the traveler’s luggage.
According to a press release from Murray Watt, Australia’s newly sworn-in Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, the traveler was carrying two McDonald’s Egg and Sausage McMuffins and a ham croissant. The entire breakfast was deemed to be a biosecurity risk. After being confiscated, the items were going to be tested for foot and mouth disease before being destroyed. The passenger was also said to carrying a variety of other risk items. As a result of the traveler’s negligence, the person was hit with a $1,846 infringement notice.
“This will be the most expensive Maccas meal this passenger ever has,” AFF Minister Murray Watt said about the McMuffins. He also noted that the fine is twice the cost of airfare to Bali. Not backing down on the penalty he added, “But I have no sympathy for people who choose to disobey Australia’s strict biosecurity measures. And recent detections show you will be caught.” The passenger also was issued a 12-unit infringement notice for failing to declare potential high biosecurity risk items and providing a false and misleading document, Food & Wine reports.
The McMuffin incident isn’t the first fast-food fine to be handed down in Australia. In July, an Australian woman had to pay the same penalty after bringing her unfinished Subway sandwich into the country. Jessica Lee said that she bought the foot-long meal during a layover in Singapore and put the unfinished half into her carry-on bag. “I ate six inches before my second flight and then saved the other six inches for the flight,” she explained via Food & Wine. “I thought the little declaration thing you do is for your carry-on and your luggage. So I didn’t tick chicken and I didn’t tick lettuce, Lee added.
Interestingly, high airport security related to foods like McMuffin’s isn’t unique to Australia. In April 2018, a Colorado woman named Crystal Tadlock flew from Paris to the United States with an apple in her luggage. Handed out as an in-flight snack by Delta Airlines, she kept the fruit in a branded plastic bag and took it off the plane with her when her flight landed in Minneapolis. When local Customs and Border Patrol agents found the fruit, they told her it was a prohibited agricultural product, and that she’d be fined $500 for her negligence.
Fortunately, her story got the attention of Congressman Ed Perlmutter who met with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol on her behalf. And the fine was eventually dropped, according to KDVR. “When cooler heads prevailed, and when they thought about it for a second, they did the right thing,” Perlmutter told the publication. It remains to be seen if Australia will eventually drop the hefty McMuffin fine too.
